On March 30, the Russian Navy launched Kazan, the second upgraded Yasen-class project 885M submarine. The Navy will take delivery of the vessel in 2018. A total of seven Yasen class nuclear attack submarines are to be built by 2023. Kazan is an upgraded Project 885M design – an advanced version that is in many ways much more capable than the lead ship of the class, Severodvinsk, the first submarine in the series, entered service in 2016.

The Kazan’s armament includes 3M22 Zircon – a hypersonic cruise capable of speeds of around Mach 5.0-Mach 6.0 (7,400 kilometer per hour (4,600 mile per hour) expected to enter into production in 2018. At a cruising altitude of 30,000 m its kinetic energy at impact is 50 times higher than existing air-ship and ship-to-ship missiles. The projectile can travel covering 155 miles in 2.5 minutes, which is faster than a sniper’s bullet. The enemy will not have enough time to get scared, let alone react.

For comparison, the sea-based Kalibr cruise missile travels at a Mach 0.9 speed, but while approaching the target, its warhead speeds up to Mach 2.9. Continue reading →

The PAK DA is being developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau. The new bomber will be significantly different from the Tu-160. It will have a flying wing design. The new bomber will be subsonic. The loss in speed will be compensated with advanced stealth and electronic capabilities.

Developers of the Russian new-generation strategic bomber, known as the Advanced Long-Range Aviation Complex (PAK DA), have defended the preliminary design of the project, according to Evgeniy Fedorov, scientific director of the Russian State Research Institute of Aviation Systems. According to him, the Defense Ministry submitted very strict requirements for the new aircraft.

“The military mentioned everything they could, including a strategic bomber, an operative and tactic missile-carrying bomber and even a long-range interceptor capable of launching space vehicles,” Fedorov told the Russian news agency RNS. Continue reading →

A trial model of Russia’s nuclear-capable outer space strategic bomber will be developed by 2020, according to its developer.

Russian commander of the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF), Colonel General Sergei Karakayev, had earlier reported that the Russian Strategic Missile Forces Academy has already developed and tested an engine for the experimental aircraft. Continue reading →

Despite its economic struggles as oil price remain stubbornly low, Russia is pressing ahead with plans to develop its new PAK-DA stealth bomber while simultaneously resuming production of the Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack supersonic strategic bomber. However, Moscow will delay the PAK-DA effort in favor of the advanced Tu-160M2 derivative of the Blackjack, but the program will not be cancelled.

A prototype of Russia’s new strategic bomber, the PAK DA, could take to the skies before 2021.

…

“Work on the PAK DA is coming along and the pace is suiting us,” the news agency quoted Viktor Bondarev, chief of Russia’s Air and Space Forces. “The challenge remains to raise the prototype into air by 2021, but if all continues at the current pace, it will take off even earlier.” Continue reading →

The aircraft is expected to be equipped with an operational engine by the time it takes off for the first time in 2023-2024, he added.

Earlier this week, reports emerged that Russia’s United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation (UIMC) was developing a one-of-a-kind communications system for the PAK DA. The system will be capable of analyzing its state, making adjustments based on these findings and switching its operation modes.

“We are already working quickly [on the project], we have created a working group, scheduled monthly meetings with the Industry and Trade Ministry on how the work is progressing and appointed chief designers,” Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov told RIA Novosti, cited by the Moscow Times.

Only 16 of the Soviet-era aircraft were built before production ceased in the 1990s. The Blackjack is an advanced supersonic bomber designed to deliver nuclear payloads. Continue reading →

There is little concrete information about the new Russian bomber—but a stealthy long-range penetrating strike aircraft is not cheap. The Pentagon’s secretive new Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program is aiming to develop an aircraft that will cost roughly $550 million per jet. Developmental costs for the American aircraft—which will supposedly rely on “mature” technologies–are likely to be in $50 billion range. While the Russia PAK-DA is not likely to be nearly as expensive, it is going to cost tens of billions of dollars at a time when Russia’s resource-based economy is collapsing into what could be a prolonged recession. Unlike the Soviet Union—which had a more or less full-service, if dysfunctional, economy—modern Russia is little more than a glorified petro-state. There are very real questions as to whether Russia can afford to complete the development of the PAK-DA.

Nonetheless, Russia’s Tupolev design bureau appears to be moving full steam ahead with the development of the new aircraft. Mikhail Pogosyan, head of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC)—a state enterprise that includes Tupolev—told RIA Novosti, a state-run Russian new agency (now known internationally as Sputnik International), earlier in the year that development of the PAK-DA had started in earnest in 2014. Pogosyan said that preliminary design work for the new aircraft was completed in April 2014 and some components are already being fabricated. Continue reading →

ZHUHAI (China), November 11. /TASS/. Russia is developing a prospective aviation complex for long-range aviation (PAK DA) – the country’s next-generation strategic bomber that is to make the first flight in 2019, President of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Mikhail Pogosyan said at the Airshow China 2014 International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition on Tuesday. Continue reading →

SOCHI, November 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will begin the full-scale R&D work on its future strategic bomber in 2014, a senior aircraft-manufacturing industry official said Thursday.

The project, known as PAK-DA (an acronym meaning “future long-range aircraft”), has been in the works for several years but was given the formal go-ahead by the Russian leadership last year. Continue reading →

Not to be outdone by the Americans, Russia’s next generation bomber, the PAK-DA, will be loaded with the latest in hypersonic weaponry, the Defense Ministry told Ria Novosti newswire on Friday.

The PAK-DA is Russia’s answer to the newest stealth bombers being built in the United States by Boeing and Lockheed Martin . Equipping them with hypersonic weaponry just puts Russia on par with air defense technologies already being tested in the U.S. Continue reading →

All of the upgraded combat aircraft will remain in service until the Tupolev Design Bureau develops Russia’s fifth generation, stealth-based strategic bomber, PAK-DA, with the expectation that the first will enter combat duty in 2025.

Under the snappy title, “Russia hits afterburners on stealth tech,” Shane McGlaun and Trent Nouveau write: “It comes as little surprise that Russia has significantly accelerated development of its stealth program in recent years, and remains on track to debut an operational Sukhoi PAK FA twin-engine stealth jet fighter sometime in 2015.”